The MPP was established in July 2010 at the request of the international community, through the innovative financing mechanism UNITAID.

UNITAID is a partnership hosted by the World Health Organization and designed to increase access to affordable, high quality commodities used to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in low- and middle-income countries. The MPP is being financed by UNITAID under a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (2016-2020) [pdf] renewed in 2016 for additional five years. UNITAID’s funding commitment to the MPP, and support of its work, was reconfirmed in December 2014 for an additional five-year period.

“Since UNITAID founded the MPP in 2010, the organisation has grown from a promising idea to a revolutionary player in global public health. It is now a cornerstone of UNITAID’s efforts to change the architecture of international development and shift market conditions to benefit low- and middle-income countries. Overall achievements prompted UNITAID to extend its support for the MPP with a new five-year funding commitment for HIV activities. We project MPP’s agreement to save more than USD 1.4 billion by 2028,” said Philippe Douste-Blazy, Chair of the Executive Board at UNITAD and UN Under-Secretary General for Innovative Financing and Development.

In November 2015, Dr. Douste-Blazy welcomed the expansion of MPP’s mandate to cover also hepatitis C and tuberculosis, “giving MPP a vital opportunity to help secure lower prices for medicines to fight these two lethal diseases.”